- Do the words "big room tech house" make you sort of wonder? The candidness of that phrase does have some inherent appeal: This is who we are and what we do, no fudging about. Variations on it accompany several releases from new-jack New York imprint Neptuun City: first-timers Lizard Kings' Next Level is tagged "big room tech funk," for what it's worth. And those tags accompany music that's just as forthright.
Since mid-December 2010, Neptuun City has issued 26 EPs. The industriousness of digital labels tends to be more a curse than a boon, and while there's no way you need to spend time with all of them, Neptuun City works to make its funk and disco connections explicit. Not a new tactic or anything, but for a self-professed big-room label, pretty progressive.
Not that either "Next Level" or "Eschen Funk," the two cuts here, put the spotlight on the itchy rhythm guitar or anything. These are whomping, filtered loop-based tracks that lunge in and out of focus, both heavily reminiscent of Paris around 1999. Passé, probably, but done well enough that they're hard to resist. Or maybe that should be "it": the B is basically minor variations on the A. Or maybe it's the other way around. The choice is yours.
Tracklist 01. Next Level
02. Eschen Funk